


I'm a survivor

by fandomsprincess



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Explicit Language, Multi, fandom based violence, not very much tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-10-22 17:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10701363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsprincess/pseuds/fandomsprincess
Summary: Kevin and Jacky Johnson were abducted by the Entity while on a campingtrip in the woods. Soon they meet other survivors who explain to them what they have to do: Survive. How will the two of them manage in the Entity's realm? And who will join the killers to balance their appearance?(And yes the title is "inspired" by the Destiny's child song)





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first Dead by Daylight fanfiction, which at the same time is my first fanfiction which is being translated to english (I originally write in german) and thus my first story on Ao3. I´ll have to warn you of probably very irregular updates due to me prioritizing the original german version. If you like me to post more often just contact me and I will try my best to balance the two versions a bit better. For now enjoy the first chapter and maybe tell me how you like it ;)

When he woke up, Kevin Johnson was alone in a forest. Well, the forest was right, after all he was on a camping trip. But where was his sister?  
"Jacky?", he shouted into the wood, when he realized, that the place where he was now, couldn't be the one where he and his sister went to sleep earlier. There was no campfire, his bagpack was nowhere to be seen and instead of the clearing, where they fell asleep, he now stood under a huge tree, with gnarled roots, which stuck out of the earth around him, and which has definetly not been there before he layed down.  
And the most important thing: Where the fuck was Jacky?  
Without much of a choice he started to wander around between the trees, hoping to find the way back to where he went to sleep. Maybe he sleepwalked and got lost, though he doubted that. He had more of a feeling that something was completely wrong here.  
Although it was nighttime the woods were unusually quiet. No buzzing insects, no foxes or other predators sneaking through the undergrowth. Absolutely nothing. The only sound around was the rustling of leaves in the weak wind.  
A feeling of unease came over him, as if something really dangerous was going on in these woods. Something so utterly terrible that even the animals had left it.  
He still had no idea where he was going when he heard a loud bang, followed bei a quit electric sizzle somewhere to his right. A definite sign that he wasn't alone. As silently as he could, he crept closer to where the noises were coming from. He didn't know if whoever caused them was friendly or dangerous. It was dark and he was alone in the woods after all. Although he was the more reasonable one, other than his sister who took her love for horror movies a bit too far, he was cautious.  
Cautious enough at least to not step into the open bear trap laying on the ground between to rocks. He carefully stepped around it and sneaked further in the direction of the noises.  
Just a couple of steps further he stood in front of a girl. Because of her dark skin and hair she was almost invisible as she sneaked through the darkness. She was wearing simple jeans and brown leather boots, a grey beanie and glasses.  
While she crept towards him, he noticed that she looked over her shoulder behind her every few steps, as if she feared someone to follow her. When she looked in front of her and saw him for the first time, she flinched in shock. Just a second later the shock became surprise and her eyes widened. She gestured him to follow her quietly and continued to crouch to some rocks. The same rocks between which the bear trap lied. He vigorously shook his head and gestured her to instead come towards himself. When the girl looked at him questioningly he pointed at the trap. She saw it and thanked him quietly, then began to sneak in his direction. She took his arm and pulled him around the other side and behind one of the rocks.  
She began to whisper so quietly that he could barely understand her: "Hello, my name is Claudette. Who are you? Do you know how you got here?" Even while speaking she was tense, ready to leap up and run in a moment's notice.  
"My name's Kevin. Kevin Johnson. And no I don't know how I got here. I was on a camping trip in the woods with my sister over a long weekend. When the sun set, we went to sleep and as I woke up again I was here and she wasn't with me anymore. Did you see her? A little taller than you, red hair, jeans and a green army sh..."  
Claudette interrupted him with a hand on his mouth. The other hand gestured him to be quiet and listen.  
First he didn't understand what he was listening for in this unnatural silence, but soon he heard it too. A rythmic sound, like a heartbeat. He looked at Claudette with a questioning look. What was that? She leaned towards him and whispered in his ear: "This is the Trapper, he's near. He mustn't find us so don't make a sound, no matter what. And don't move unless I tell you to."  
When he nodded his understanding she sat back again, still bouncing on her toes, apparently her usual position.  
The heartbeat became gradually louder, which probably meant that the "Trapper", whoever that was, got closer. Although he didn't know why, something told him to do what he was told and he tried not to move and to breathe as quietly as possible. Now he could also hear footsteps, of someone in very heavy boots and the heavy breathing one develops when wearing a halloweenmask.  
His own heart began to beat wildly, as he sensed the sole presence of the person who, as it seemed, searched the woods no ten meters from Kevin and Claudette. He seemed to be looking for them.  
Just a few feet from him an arm, covered in blood and with metal spikes protruding from it, reached through the gap between the rocks and pushed the grass aside in which the bear trap was hidden. Kevin had to force himself to stay calm so he wouldn't jump and run. Next to him Claudette, eyes closed, seemed to pray that whoever that arm belonged to, wouldn't find them. Apparently satisfied that the trap was still intact, the arm dissapeared and the footsteps left.  
Kevin didn't dare to breathe until the footsteps could no longer be heard. He hadn't realized he had held his breath until now.  
"What the hell was that?", he asked Claudette, horrified.  
"That", she answered dryly, "was the Trapper. And actually I'm pretty impressed. I think if that happened to me during my first night, I would've ran away, and that would've been my death."  
"In your FIRST night? How long are you here? Where are we, anyway? And why is some kind of Psycho after us?"  
"Calm down", Claudette interrupted him, when he was close to losing his mind. "We are at the McMillan Estate or rather the part of it we call the shelter woods, because the trees help us to hide. You've been abducted by the Entity. And don't ask, none of us knows exactly what the Entity is, but it's a force, some think even a deity, which holds us here, survivors and killers, and forces us to compete every night. And it's always night around here. There are seven of us, survivors, with you eight, and six killers. Probably seven now you're here. Most of the time if there's a new survivor, there's also a new killer. The killers try to, well, kill us and sacrifice us to the Entity. The only way for us to avoid that and get back to safety is to power the two metal gates which lead out of here. But to do that we have to repair at least five generators. So we should get moving and help the others with that."  
"We are going to just walk around here while this guy is chasing us?"  
"It's the only we to get out of here."  
"How do you know that?"  
"I'm doing this for quite a while now. I was one of the first people to get here."  
"But why are you still here then? If you know the way out why don't you just leave?"  
There was a compassionate little smile tugging at Claudettes lips. "Because the way out always leads to the same place. And no one escapes from there. Every time you try, you walk in circles and end up exactly where you started. There is no escape from the Entity's world."  
"There has to be a way!" Slowly Kevin felt panic rising in him.  
Claudette only shook her head. "I'm sorry but we tried everything. There is no way out." For a while she said nothing, deeply in thought. Then she looked into his eyes, took his hand and pulled him with her. "Follow me, I will show you how to get out of these woods at least."  
Claudette led him back to the generator she was coming from when he met her. Which seemed to be hours ago in Kevins opinion, but probably it really were only a few minutes. She crouched down besides it and showed Kevin how he had to clean the inside from an impossible amount of dirt and leaves, and how he had to join the wires to get the generator back to work. If he made a mistake there would be a missfiring she pointed out. This explained the bang he heard earlier. Those missfirings were sure to lure the killer in their direction so you had to avoid them at all costs. Also the wires became loose again in those mini-explosions which killed a good amount of progress. Claudette really wasn't that good at repairing the generators and she'd rather think twice before she risked doing a thing which really slowed her down. She told him about another survivor, Jake, who had a knack for technical things and could apparently repair a generator in his sleep. She also mentioned some of the other five survivors.  
A few minutes later they were done and the generator came to life with a loud rattle. The four lights which had flickered on a mast above the generator started to shine and illuminated their surroundings.  
"Now quick, before the Trapper comes back here."  
Claudette sneaked quickly and silently through the apparently arbitrarily placed ruins of walls between which the generator stood and led him to the only still intact wall, just high enough that he couldn't just climb over it and at a few places replaced with fencing. Claudette, who noticed his thoughtfull glance towards it, just shook her head again. "Don't even think about it. Meg once tried to climb over it. You'll just come back down on the other side of this place. And hurt yourself." Nontheless, the wall wouldn't leave his thoughts and he glanced back at it more than one time, while he followed Claudette.  
When the two of them were halfway done with their next generator, it sprang to life on its own and they heard a loud, howling noise. It seemed to come from multiple directions at once and Kevin couldn't locate it's source. A smile appeared on Claudettes face.  
"We did it, the others had to be working really hard and repair the rest of the generators we need. Now we only need to find the gates and open them, then we can leave this place."  
Finally a sliver of hope albeit a small one for which they also still had to get something done. But it fueled them and so they sneaked along the wall until they found one of the gigantic metal gates. The Trapper seemed to have already found it though, because they could see one of his beartraps beneath the lever that would power the gates, ready to claw into the leg of everyone who stepped in it.  
Claudette gestured to him to stay hidden behind one of the withered walls and disarmed the trap which snapped shut with a high metallic sound. Then she grabbed the lever and pulled it down. It took way too long for the electricity to reach the gate and all this time she stood there, without cover and for everyone to see. The noise of the trap snapping shut apparently summoned the Trapper because just seconds after Claudette pulled the lever Kevin could hear his heartbeat. It grew louder and louder and Kevin wondered why she wouldn't run for cover. Two of the three little red lamps, that showed how far the gate was already powered, were burning when the killer appeared. Claudette cast a meaningful glance at Kevin and ran for her life. The killer apparently didn't see him because he followed her and Kevin sprinted to the door, pulled the lever down again and waited for the gate to open. He was highly tempted to just run out of the gates and into safety but he didn't want Claudette to be left alone with a killer on her heels. Nervously he waited by the gate and shifted from one foot to the other. Just then he heard a cry a few hundred meters away. He probably should go and help whoever just screamed, most likely Claudette, but what could he do? A second scream sealed his fate and he decided he had to help her, whatever happened. After all she was the one who helped him first.  
He ran in the direction from where he heard the cries and only stopped when he could hear the killers heartbeat. Everything in him screamed he should go back and be safe, but he couldn't leave her. She very much saved his life while endangering herself by looking after him, the least he could do was to return the favor. When he sneaked around the next corner, he stopped dead in his tracks. Just a few feet away Claudette was hanging over the Trapper's shoulder, squirming and wriggling to get free. Not far from them stood one of the meathooks. Kevin could already see what was about to happen now. As quiet as possible he hid behind a wall and hoped she would be able to wiggle herself free before the killer would reach the hook. She wasn't. Her shrieks went right through him, so filled with pain and panic. He swallowed hard and was still thinking about how he could help her when he saw a girl with strawberry blonde braids jumping in just as the killer looked down to set a trap. She grabbed Claudette and unhooked her before the killer looked up again. Both girls fell in a sprint and without thinking about it Kevin gave chase, back to the gate. Claudette was limping behind a bit and the killer was about to catch up, when the girl with the braids turned around and pulled down what looked like a brightly coloured wooden pallet which leaned against one of the walls. Kevin could hear the killer grunting with pain as the pallet hit his head and stunned him for a few seconds. As fast as he could Kevin ran after the girls and caught up with them at the gate. Claudette looked at him with surprise. "I didn't think you would stay once the gate opened."  
The blonde interrupted her. "You do know the killer is right behind us, right? Can we please talk after we got out of here?"  
"But what about...", Claudette protested but was interrupted again.  
"Nea is sitting at the hatch, waiting for us to go. Now come!"  
Just when she was done speaking the Trapper appeared in the gate. The girls and Kevin ran as fast as they could and after a few steps Kevin sensed that he passed an invisible barrier. When the killer reached that spot a tangle of black thorns shot up and hindered him to go any further. Kevin still didn't dare to stop running and followed the girls to something far away that looked like the flicker of a campfire.  
Finally save, he thought.  
At least for now.


	2. Arrival

When Jacky Johnson woke up she had been alone. Between some sparsely placed trees, which definetly weren't the ones that her brother and she went to sleep under at nightfall. Now she was wandering silently along a wall, hoping to find some signs of civilization sometime soon. Well, except for the huge, decaying building some hundred meters away from her, in the middle of a seemingly fenced in area. She didn't think that anybody was still in there.  
How the hell did she get here?  
In irregular intervals she heard a high screeching, as if someone with an asthma attack tried to scream. Sometimes after this screeches she could hear another sound that reminded her of a heartbeat. Sometimes louder, sometimes quiet. When she couldn't find another indication for human life around her except for the building and a few withered walls she decided to examine the house.  
From the outside she could only see that it apparently had two floors, a lot of broken windows and that the walls were severely decayed at some points and looked like there had been a fire a long time ago. In short: It resembled a ruin more than an actual house. Nevertheless, maybe she could finally find a clue as to where she was, how she got here, and why she apparently wasn't able to leave in there.  
On her way to the house she noticed a machine which looked like the generator that powered the little cabin that her familiy used to rent for vacations. Curious she tried to push the button that would turn it on. Nothing happened. The generator probably was just as old and withered as everything around it so it wasn't really a surprise to Jacky. A little dissapointed she continued her way towards the building.  
Just when she reached the stairs leading to the entrance she heard a blood curdling scream. It seemed to come from the other side of the building and spoke of pure pain and terror. Who ever screamed needed help and that was something Jacky couldn't ignore. She edged silently around the side of the building, whatever made that person scream, if it was alive Jacky didn't want to run into it.  
She was just about to round the corner to the back side of the building when she saw two teenagers running just a few meters away from her. A boy with messy dark hair and a green windbreaker who was limping and supporting an even worse looking girl in a high-waist-jeans. Both were bleeding from various wounds but hers looked way more crucial than his. She really shouldn't be running in this state. But when Jacky saw why those two were running so frantically, her blood seemed to freeze in her veins.  
A small, ghostly figure, completely clad in white, chased them. The creature wasn't walking though. It was hovering several centimeters above the ground. In one hand it was holding something glowing, which Jacky couldn't really make out. In the other hand though, she was carrying a bloodstained bone-saw, with which she was trying to hit the teenagers.  
Both of them were limping and even if this... ghost wasn't moving very fast it would catch up to them soon enough. And Jacky didn't want to imagine what would happen then. She knew she had to do something to help them.  
Without thinking, she yelled: "Hey, I'm over here!"  
Three heads turned to her. The being as well as the two teenagers looked at her, puzzled. At least that's what Jacky thought because the ghostlike figure hid its face behind some kind of hood, which actually looked more like a sack, in front of its face.  
Jacky gestured the other teenagers to quickly run away and when the hooded thing turned araound again, they were already gone. The creature screeched furiously and pointed her hand with the glowing thing in it at Jacky. It became blurry and dashed in her direction, as a blurry white stripe.  
Only when she landed on the ground Jacky realized that she had thrown herself out of the way to dodge the thing. When it stopped it bent forward, panting exhaustedly. Jacky saw a chance and used that time to get some distance between her and the ghost because it would probably hunt her now that it lost its previous victims because of her.  
And really, as soon as it stood upright again it began to chase after her.  
Jacky burst into a sprint. Zig-zagging she ran through the piles of what looked to her like broken furniture to put something between her and the thing. She soon realized that she ran away from the house and the piles became less. When she had no more ways to avoid the creature she tried to outrun her and she just ran as fast as she could.  
Apparently a mistake, because as soon as she had gained some distance she heard the screech again. She didn't dare to turn around but suddenly the white stripe she saw before dashed in front of her and the ghost materialized out of it right in front of Jacky.  
She couldn't stop in time and ran directly into the outstreched bonesaw with which the creature hit at her.  
She screamed with pain when the saws sharp teeth sank into her skin and ripped the flesh beneath it to shreds.  
Again, the creature seemed to be extremely exhausted and Jacky took her chance to get away from it once more. She ran back to the building and luckily she didn't get to far away from it before so that she was able to limp inside now even before the creature recovered.  
She passed the entrance as fas as she could and found herself in front of a staircase. Above her was a hole in the ceiling through which she could flee in case the creature found her so she decided to try and hide upstairs.  
Inside the building there was even more thrash than around it. Jacky thought to recognize broken hospital beds in the piles. Also she saw some red lockers. Jacky had seen enough horrormovies to know that she would definetly be found in one of them and then she would be completely helpless. Instead she hid behind one of the trashpiles at the wall so that she couldn't be seen from the stairs and could quickly get to the hole in the ground should she need to.  
Not a minute later the figure in white came hovering up the stairs. She seemed to look around and dissappeared behind the next corner but Jacky dind't dare to leave her hiding spot yet. Not long after the creature came back from the other side of the corridor which made Jacky think that it probably went around the inside of the building.  
The creature came to a halt not two steps away from Jacky. Only now did she realize, that the heartbeat, which she had heard before, came from the creature and that she could guess where and how far away it was from the sound of it.  
She also noticed another sound. A falteringly running machine. She was grateful for the noise which drowned out her own panting breaths and a few whimpers she couldn't hold back.  
The thing stood a few more seconds in the corridor before it went down the stairs again and left Jacky alone in the building.  
Jacky counted to ten and then another time for good mesasure before she dared to sigh in relief. She got away, at least for now. She inspected her wound and noticed, that it didn't look as bad as it felt. She could manage to pull herself together, leave this house and find a way out of here. She had to.  
But first she had to rest and get her own heartbeat back under control.  
Just when she leaned against the wall behind her to catch her breath and calm her pulse she heard footsteps on the stairs. Alarmed, she crouched back into her niche, scared that the creature would come back. Until she remembered that the creature floated and didn't produce footsteps. Still she didn't move until she could see who came up the stairs.  
It was the boy that she had seen before, running away from the creature with the other girl. His dark hair was still a mess. He looked around an when he couldn't directly find her he started shouting quietly.  
"Hey, are you still here? I saw you run inside here with the nurse and she came out alone so..."  
He let his eyes wander again, as if was looking for her.  
"My name is Jake", he explained, "Jake Park. You're hurt, right? I can help you but you have to show youself for it."  
Jacky thought about if this was a trick but this boy just ran away from the same thing she just barely managed to shake off. He could've just run away but he came back because he saw her getting hurt, that had to prove they were on the same side, right?  
At last her curiosity (and pain) won and she stood up.  
The boy looked at her and his glance got stuck on her wound. He appraoched her carefully and pulled out some stripes of fabric from his pocket.  
"May I?" Questioningly he held out the stripes that looked like improvised bandages.  
"Please", she groaned out between gritted teeth.  
"What's your name?"  
"Jacky. Johnson." She took a sharp breath when he tightened the bandage right over her wound.  
"Sorry, I'm not that good in dressing somebody elses wounds. But if we get out of here Claudette can look at it, she'll know what to do. And until your next trial, it will be fine again."  
"What do you mean: Next trial?"  
He looked at her compassionately and patted her shoulder.  
"I'm sorry, but you're stuck here, just as I am. The Entity abducted you just like us and now you're in his world."  
"Please what?"  
"Let me finish", he interrupted her. "The Entity... actually nobody knows exactly what it is. It's some kind of force. And this force pulled you out of our world into this one. A parallel world to the one we know with copies of real places like this asylum. The Entity puts four of us in one of those copies with a killer who tries to... well, kill us."  
"Like this ghost out there", Jacky asked more than sceptically. She didn't want to believe one word he said but really her situation was so weird he didn't even sound that crazy. And she had no better explanation so what could she do but believe him?  
"Ghost? Well, we call her the Nurse but I get why you would think that. There's another killer who we call the Wraith and that's basically the same thing."  
"How many of them are there?"  
"The Nurse, the Wraith, the Trapper", he started to count the names on his fingers, "the Hillbilly, Myers and the Hag. Six killers."  
"Sounds nice", Jacky answered drily. "And how many of you?"  
She gestured qoutation marks around the "you".  
"Seven. With you eight."  
"Or nine", she muttered.  
"What did you say?"  
"Nothing... Before I woke up here I was on a camping trip with my brother. Do you think... do you think he could be here too?"  
"For his sake I hope not, but it could be. The Entity did bring four of us here at the same time. the first four, that were needed for the trials. And he never abducted someone when somebody else was around. For now we should try to get out of here. If your brother really is here then you'll find him at the campfire. But to get there we have to repair five generators to power the gates, the only way to leave this place."  
Jacky nodded. She had already seen one of them.  
"Two of them are inside this building, one up here, one on the first floor. Laurie started to work on the one up here, when the nurse found her. Follow me, I'll show you how to repair them."  
Jacky assumed that Laurie had to be the blonde she saw with Jake before. She nodded again and followed Jake through the building. At the generator she realized, that it was his sounds that saved her from the nurse before.  
She oberved how quickly and skillfully Jakes fingers handled the wires and cables inside the machine. One after another, the bolts on top of the generator started to move and the lamps above it started to flicker. When all of the the bolts were moving, Jake hit the switch that activated him and the lamps flashed to life.  
Immediatly Jake jumped up and ran down the stairs. Jacky followed him to the next generator and couched down beside it to help him.  
Just when Jacky started to scrape dirt from wires and contacts she started to hear the heartbeat again. She winced looked at Jake, who just continued working.  
"She's still far away and we don't even know if she will look inside the house. You just have to be careful not to misfire the generator and stay quiet", Jake whispered to her, "If she sees you: Run. But if you run you leave a trail she can follow to find you, so only do it if she has already found you."  
Jacky tried to listen to him and concentrate on repairing the machine in front of her to not cause a misfiring but the heartbeat became louder and louder and Jacky really started getting nervous. It was a miracle she managed not to make a mistake that misfired the generator and only got her fingers burned by the wires twice.  
Despite her efforts she suddenly saw the blurry white stripe again, coming towards her and the Nurse materialized right next to her. Jacky jumped up and sprinted to the asylums entrance. Jake was right behind her, while the Nurse was recovering from her teleport.  
"Duck! I'm gonna distract her and you go back an finish the gen", Jake mumbled and pushed her into a patch of long grass besides the stairs.  
"What if she catches you?"  
"She won't just get us out of here." And with a wink he sprinted away from the building, only one second before the nurse reached the door.  
Jacky cowererd behind the grass and hoped the killer wouldn't find her but the Nursefollowed Jake and soon was out of sight.  
Jacky sneaked into the building again and knelt down in front of the generator once more. Luckily Jake was really fast in repairing those things and she could handle the rest alone. Just a few minutes later the generator sprung to life and Jacky heard a loud noise which seemed to resound over the whole place.  
She didn't know what to do now so she just sneaked out of the building and hid somwhere closeby. Not long after she could hear another scream, that sent shivers down her spine. She saw something in the sky that made her forget how to breathe and her eyes widened in shock.  
A huge black cloud, through which orange lightnings flashed from time to time, lowered itself to the ground a few hundret meters away from her. She could see something that reminded her of enormous, shimmering black spiderlegs winding out of the cloud and to the ground. After a while they withdrew into the cloud and now they were holding something, that looked like a human body. A shock wave spread out from the place where the legs hat hit the ground and when it hit Jacky she was overcome by nausea and a dizziness that almost knocked her out. Not good, she tought. She was a much to easy target like that.  
She was surprised by her thoughts. Apparently her subconcious had already switched to survival mode.  
When she at least somehow regained a clear mind she saw a boy with dark hair run towards her. She first thougt it would be Jake, but his hair was to short and he was a little taller. Besides he was wearing a white shirt and a red and white tie with a jeans. Also he was wearing glasses.  
"I'm Dwight", he begann to explain, a little short of breath, "Jake told me to get you. He is still distracting the Nurse so we should hurry up and get out of here."  
Jacky knew she shouldn't trust strangers that easily. But did she really have a choice? Could he be worse than the Nurse? She doubted it. Besides, he said Jake had sent him. He probably was a "survivor" like Jake. And her now apparently.  
She decided to trust him. After all he probably wanted to get out of here just as bad as she wanted to and still he was here, getting a girl he didn't even know instead of saving himself.  
She thanked him and he nodded, turned araound and ran back around the building and towards the wall that surrounded this place. She followed him and soon saw a great metal gate, wich stood already open. Dwight ran inside but stoppend and looked back to the terrain the just left.  
"Come on, we already lost Laurie, you can't die too", he mumbled.  
"Laurie? What happened to her?"  
"The Nurse got her and offered her to the Entity", Dwight answered. He didn't even look overly sad, while Jacky was completely shocked.  
"She killed her?"  
"This time. We can't really die here, we always wake up at the campfire. It's still painful."  
Jacky shivered, she didn't even want to think about it.  
"Jake told me you saved them from the Nurse. That was really brave for someone who just got here."  
"I didn't really do anything. I just distracted her from them."  
"That's more than other people would have done for two strangers. And it was enough for them to get away."  
"Well didn't do Laurie any good, did it?" Jacky looked to the ground.  
"That wasn't your fault", Dwight tried to reassure her, "you bought all of us time to get out of here. You did really good for you first time here."  
"Still...", she began, but was interrupted by Jake who now came running towards them.  
"Run!", he shouted and limped past them into security.  
Jacky heard the shrill screeching the Nurse made right before a teleport and Dwight grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the exit, behind which a barren landscape appeared. Jacky followed him and only sensed a whif of air as the bonesaw cut the air right behind her.  
Just a moment later she asked herself what exactly hinderes the nurse from just following them but that question got answered when she saw the black fence, that miraculously appeared behind her. It reminded her of those weird spiderlegs she saw before.  
She didn't stay to examine them but hurried to follow the boys.  
It didn't take long for the Gate to dissappear in the distance but now Jacky could see the flickering light of a campfire in front of her and she ran towards it.


	3. Breathing

Kevin was sitting at the campfire. Waiting. The whole time he was nervously playing with his bandages which caught him some annoyed glances from Claudette who was sitting next to him and tried to stitch up the other's wounds as good as she could. With him at the campfire were Claudette and the girl with the braids who introduced herself as Meg. Also sitting a few steps away from them were a third girl with short black hair under a beanie, who had to be Nea, and a guy whose silvery dark hair almost made him look old if his face didn't look just as young as everyone else's.  
Apparently, there were still people from the group missing. A girl named Laurie and two boys, Dwight and Jake. Claudette told him that every trial had four survivors in it so there had to be an unknown fourth person with those three. Jacky probably. Kevin didn't know if he should be happy that he wasn't alone in this hell or worried because now she had to live in it with him.  
He tried to distract himself by observing the others but there was not much happening.  
Claudette was calm and her presence seemed to have an effect on the others. Even Kevin could feel it and subconsciously calmed down a bit while she was bandaging his wounds.  
Meg seemed to be her complete opposite. She was energetic and always moving. She regularly got up to walk around the campfire as if it was impossible for her to stay put too long. Kevin didn't know if it was the aftermath of being chased by a psychopathic killer or if it was her usual behaviour.  
Nea stayed a bit away from the group. She was quiet and didn't really participate in the others' rare conversations but she seemed to notice everything that happened around her.  
The last person present was Ace. He was sitting between the girls and tried to make them laugh with unbearably bad jokes, even though in Kevin's eyes their situation wasn't really one to laugh in. Claudette tried to tell him that it was just his way of trying to cheer them up but that didn't really make him more likable in Kevin's book.  
It seemed to him as if he had been sitting here for hours already but he couldn't exactly know that because there was nothing showing a passing of time. The full moon above them didn't move at all, there were no stars and the sky didn't change colour as to indicate dawn.  
Nothing happened but the movement and talking of the other survivors around the campfire and sometimes a light breeze rustling the leaves. Though that rustle sounded more like whispering.  
Without the slightest bit of feeling for the passing of time Kevin couldn't say how long he sat there when, out of the blue, a girl appeared at the fire. She just lay there between the tree-trunks that functioned as seats although she wasn't there a second before. She had her eyes shut as if she was sleeping but it didn't seem to be very relaxing because she threw her head from side to side and whimpered in her sleep. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead and her face was contorted with pain.  
Claudette sat down beside her to lay the blondes head into her lap. That had to be Laurie, thought Kevin, she was the only girl still missing.  
"What's wrong?", Kevin asked worried and sat down next to Claudette. He noticed the other three attentively staring into the fog surrounding the woods as if they expected something to happen there.  
"She fell into the killers' hands and was sacrificed to the entity. She will wake up eventually, we always do, but until then... It's not something you want to experience more often than you have to."  
"Can we do something to help?"  
Claudette looked sad and shook her head. "Nothing except being there and reassure her it's over when she wakes up."  
"What about the others? The ones that were with her in the trial?"  
"We don't know", Claudette shrugged her shoulders, "Not until they come back. Either on their own legs or", she nodded down in Laurie's direction, "like this." She took one of the stripes of fabric she also used as bandages and wiped the sweat off of Laurie's forehead.  
If Jacky really was out there, he really hoped she would manage the first variant.  
He didn't have to wait very long until, not too far away, three silhouettes appeared against the fog. Two of them were male apparently one of them slightly larger than the other. Those had to be the two boys still missing, that Claudette told him about. The third person was noticeably smaller than the others and was being supported by one of the guys. When they came close enough for the light of the fire to fall on them, Kevin recognized her red hair and immediately jumped up.  
"Jacky!"  
The person looked up and her eyes lit up when they fell on him. "Kevin!" She pulled her arm from the guy's shoulder and fell more than she ran into his arms. He caught her and squeezed her almost too hard until he remembered that she was most likely hurt.  
"How are you? Are you hurt?"  
She shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks to those two. If Jake hadn't found me I don't know..." She swallowed hard. "Doesn't matter. What about you?"  
"It does matter..." But she wouldn't hear any of it. Her worried look made him give up and sigh. "I'm fine. Claudette found me before something happened to me." He nodded in her direction. Jacky's eyes followed his and she gasped. "Laurie? What's wrong with her?"  
Immediately she made for them, even if she could barely stand on her own. She knelt down next to them and Claudette repeated what she had just explained to Kevin. Jacky clasped her hand over her mouth and looked at Laurie. "I'm so sorry", she murmured, "If I had been more helpful... If they hadn't had to look out for me, they could've helped her."  
"Nonsense", the boy with the glasses, that came with her and the other boy from their trial. Dwight apparently, if the other one was Jake. "You did good, especially for your first time there and without knowing what was even going on. It's not the first time for one of us to be sacrificed and probably not the last time either. It's really not your fault. Some of us were way less helpful in their first trial than you were."  
Jacky smiled weakly. Kevin knew that, even if what Dwight said was true, she wouldn't listen. She would still blame herself for Laurie's situation. But he was proud of her, she seemed to have done really well. He sat down beside her, put his arm around her shoulders and looked at the boys.  
"Thanks for helping her. I'm Kevin, her brother."  
Jake, the smaller one, with the longer, messy hair, nodded and sat down next to Nea on one of the trunks. Jacky said it had been him who kept her out of harm's way and Kevin was incredibly thankful for that.  
Dwight, the one with the glasses looked at him and smiled wryly. "Welcome to hell. So we got not only one but two new survivors. That's new. I'm Dwight. Dwight Fairfield."  
"Our Leader", Meg chimed in, her tone somewhere between teasing and affectionate. Dwight ignored her but his cheeks turned a bright red. "I think all of us should introduce themselves so those two get to know us and we get to know them. We start to give Laurie time to wake up. Who wants to start?"  
Meg jumped up and bowed down in an unnecessary polite manner. "The name is Meg Thomas. Pro sportswoman and completely undeserved in this hell. Like all of us of course." She sat back down and poked Jake who just annoyedly rolled his eyes. He didn't stand up but looked at them and introduced himself. Shortly.  
"Jake Park. There really isn't much more to say."  
Now it was Meg's turn to roll her eyes. "He's too modest. He's our best mechanic and by far the fastest in repairing the gens. Also, he can destroy the killers' hooks, so that they can't sacrifice us as easily. Oh and the Trappers bear traps. He can destroy them too."  
Kevin saw the question in Jacky's eyes. "Which hooks? I didn't see any?", she asked Jake.  
Nea laughed quietly. "She really survived a trial without seeing any hooks? What did you do to her? Put her in a locker until the gates opened?"  
Meg giggled but Jake looked at Nea darkly. Kevin saw Dwight wanting to give an explanation but Nea beat him to the punch.  
"Listen kiddo. When we say we are caught in hell here, we mean it. This little campfire is the nice part of being here. Most of the time though we are running around on some pseudo-junkyard or something trying not to be hung onto huge meat hooks by one of the psychopathic killers to be sacrificed to a sadistic spider-entity so it can play with us."  
"NEA!", Claudette shouted indignantly.  
"That's how it is, isn't it?", Nea hissed back.  
"But you don't have to put it like that. In the cruelest way possible", Dwight chimed in.  
Kevin could feel his sister shaking her head beside him. "No, she's right. There is no nice way to put it and I'd rather hear a cruel but honest explanation than one that tries not to scare me but doesn't prepare me for what's out there."  
Even Kevin, who knew her better than anybody, was surprised by her reaction. He never thought her to be so calm about their situation. After all, and that really hit him just now, they would have to fight for their life again and again for apparently the rest of time. The appropriate reaction would probably be a panic attack but somehow he didn't feel panicked at all.  
Nea apparently didn't expect her reaction. Her earlier derogative glance turned into one that was more interested and even slightly respectful.  
"Well, now that you interfered already, you can go on and introduce yourself", Dwight sighed, trying to change the subject.  
Nea just shrugged. "Nea. Karlsson if my surname is anything to you. Living more on the street than with my parents. Which came in pretty handy when I got here. Helps evade killers and stuff. That's about it."  
Jacky's lips turned into a smile and Kevin knew that she liked Nea already. He found her behaviour more rude than anything else but on the other hand politeness probably wasn't worth anything when running from a killer. Or the police.  
The next one to introduce herself was Claudette. Her surname was Morel and she had a vast knowledge of mending wounds and collecting herbs that helped with healing what apparently saved the others lives several times. While Claudette was talking, Laurie woke up and propped herself up against the tree-trunk right beside her. She looked at him and Jacky the whole time but Kevin really couldn't think of a reason why. Other than them being the new ones, at least. She seemed shocked, almost repulsed even and in no way as positive and inviting as the others.  
The last male member of the group introduced himself as Ace Visconti. He seemed to think he was Fortuna's favourite. He had been a gambler before he was brought here and maybe he was the only one that deserved to be here. Kevin didn't like him. Even worse that Jacky seemed to be curious what his last statement could mean. He knew she would try to find out why he thought he belonged in a hell like that.  
Laurie was the last one to introduce herself. She had lived in a small town in the late seventies before the Entity abducted her. Something in her voice made Kevin think that she didn't tell them everything there was to tell. He told himself to be careful around her until he found out what she kept from them.  
When everyone else was finished, Jacky introduced them both.  
"I'm Jacky and this is my brother Kevin but most of you know that already. We live... lived in Weeks and used to go on camping trips in the near woods. This time we used our long weekend for it and settled down for the night when the sun started to set. We went to sleep and woke up here."  
She looked at him and he nodded. That's exactly what happened to him too. There hadn't even been something unusual on their trip until he woke up here.  
When nobody else seemed to have any questions, Dwight started to speak again.  
"You know more or less what you have to do from now on. The Entity puts four of us together in a trial to be chased around by one of the killers so they can sacrifice us to him. The only way to get out are two gates which we have to power by repairing at least five of the generators which are scattered everywhere on the hunting grounds. There are always more than five to give us a more or less fair chance to escape. There is also something like an "emergency exit" if one of us is trapped alone because the others have been killed or escaped without you. If at least two generators have been activated a hatch appears somewhere on the ground. It can appear anywhere and it's not always in the same place but mostly in the same area. Most of the time it appears near the killer's basement. In all of the different places where the Entity sends us, there is always a basement. In the basement are four hooks so be extra careful around it. You will know where it is because you will sense the Entity's presence there. He guards those hooks, so they can never be destroyed."  
Dwight took a deep breath after his explanation and Meg continued it.  
"We don't know exactly why but the Entity does help us too. There are always some wooden chests around every place. In those chests are things to help us escape the trials. There are first-aid kits or tool boxes and some other stuff. You can earn those things out of the trials too. There's a place we call the "bloodweb" because that's what it looks like. You can go there by asking the Entity to bring you there but he will only do it when you actually earned his help. So try not to die too often. If you don't go there willingly he will send you there when he thinks you deserve it. In the bloodweb there are different objects like the ones you can find in the trials but also offerings to give us advantages when we burn them. Every time you go there the things you can get become better. And more."  
Dwight nodded and added: "When you are really good the Entity will offer you certain perks you can get which you can learn to get a bigger advantage over the killers. You can only learn one at a time so when you want to learn a new one you will lose the old one. The only exception are you personal perks. You can't lose those but you're the only one who will have them. Except if you teach them to us. We can teach each other perks but they will take the place of the ones the Entity can teach you."  
A shiver ran down Kevin's spine when he thought about a dying entity that tried to teach him stuff while simultaneously trying to get him killed. Jacky leaned into him closer, though he doubted she even realized it. Both of them always tried to comfort and protect each other. She probably noticed his shivering and subconsciously tried to calm him down. He never knew if it was due to them being twins or not but their connection was definitely stronger than between most other pairs of siblings.  
"But the most important thing are the killers. We aren't the only ones with perks." Everybody looked over to Jake who didn't say one word more than what was necessary until now. Now he spoke up to explain: "Every killer is dangerous in their own way. We know six of them although there is probably a new one joining them now that you are here. Jacky already met the Nurse with us. She is a bit slower than the other killers but she can teleport a certain distance and even through walls and stuff to make up for it. The Hillbilly is kinda similar. When he starts his chainsaw he starts to sprint and is incredibly fast but it's difficult for him to change directions once he starts.  
"Like a rhino", Jacky mumbled next to Kevin, and Jake smiled and nodded.  
"Yeah kinda. Then there's the Wraith who can go invisible..."  
"Please what?", Kevin interrupted in shock. How was anyone supposed to escape an invisible killer?  
"It's not that bad", Dwight played it down, "He can't do anything as long as he's invisible so has to become visible before he can hit us. And he has to use a bell to do it so you can hear him every time he changes between visible and invisible. You can also see his figure shimmering so he's not completely undetectable."  
"But you can't hear his heartbeat when he's invisible", Meg added, but then you can hear his rattling breath when he stands right behind you." She started to giggle and Kevin assumed she was exaggerating.  
"Kevin got to meet the Trapper already", Claudette changed the subject. "Well, given the name you can already guess what he does. He puts up bear traps all over the place and you have to be very careful not to step into them. They're often very well hidden though and when you're being chased it's easy to overlook them. But once you're trapped you're an easy catch."  
"Next one would be the Hag", Dwight took over again, "Like the Trapper she puts up traps on the ground. They're even harder to see because they're only scraped symbols. You won't get stuck in them but she can teleport to them once you activate one and then she's right behind you. She's usually stunned after she teleports but not for very long. Try to use that time to get as far away from her as you can.  
"The last one is the Shape", Jake explained again.  
"We usually just call him Myers 'cause that's his name", Nea interrupted and Kevin saw how Laurie flinched at the name. Jacky seemed to know the name too cause he saw her perk up but given her confused expression she couldn't place it.  
"It was his name before the Entity brought him here, yes", Jake corrected, "Now he's the Shape. At the beginning of a trial, he has almost no heartbeat at all. He's the one you really only hear when he's right behind you. Seeing him is difficult too because of his really dark clothes. THe only thing you see is his white mask. He is a stalker. The longer he can watch you, the more dangerous he gets. The only good thing is that this increases his heartbeat. THe bad thing is that he gets faster and in the end, he only needs to hit us once and we go down. Usually, we can each take two hits, given nobody patched you up after the first one."  
Dwight nodded and took the word again. "Every killer has his or her favourite terrain which appeared with them. For the Trapper that's the Estate. Apparently, a family with the name McMillan used to live there and mined for coal."  
"How do you know?", Jacky asked and tilted her head in a way she always did when she was curious about something.  
Dwight just shrugged and answered: "When you know the grounds inside out you start to notice details that give away the places' history."  
"What other places are there?", Kevin asked now. That seemed way more important to him at the moment.  
Dwight continued explaining. "The Hillbilly "lives" on a farm. Sometimes there's a big house in the middle of it, sometimes it's an abattoir. There are always corn fields though. You can use them to hide and throw off the killer, should he be chasing you. Every place changes from time to time like there are different versions of one place. The Wraith usually hunts on a wrecking yard with car wrecks and sometimes an office or a gas station. The Nurse haunts an old asylum."  
"And that's where she belongs", Nea muttered.  
"The Hag seems to inhabit a swamp where some old ships seem to have run aground long ago. And M... the Shape favours a copy of a small town's suburbs. One road to be specific. You have to search the houses and backyards for generators if you don't want to sit down on the street where you're almost completely defenseless.  
That's it I think. Anybody else something to add?"  
Dwight looked around but everybody shook their heads. Kevin couldn't think of any more questions and Jacky didn't seem to have any either. Both of them had more than enough to digest already.  
Meg tried to reassure them that they would learn everything in time and as long as they needed help all of them were there to protect them. At least they never had to fight alone because they were always four in the trials.  
Jacky yawned next to him and he could feel that she started to nod off. He felt it too. All the fear and adrenaline he experienced today had exhausted him and he was tired.  
Dwight seemed to notice because he nodded at them. "You should try to get some sleep. you will need all your energy in the next trial. Which will probably be sooner than you like. Like Meg said, we're here, we protect you."  
Jacky looked at him and the others with pure gratitude. "Thank you. All of you. For everything. We'll try to learn as fast as possible so we won't drag on you for too long."  
Kevin nodded his approval. His sister definitely was better at finding the right words to express just what she, and most of the time both of them, was thinking.  
When everybody just smiled and nodded both of them laid down next to the fire and almost immediately fell asleep.  
Their whole life had been turned upside down in just a few hours. It was frightening to think about it but right now they couldn't do anything about it. Kevin told himself that he would learn everything he needed to know to get out of here as fast as possible.


End file.
